There are three major strategies used to treat cancer: surgery, chemotherapy, and radiotherapy. Frequently these modalities are combined to increase tumor control or to reduce treatment side effects. In radiotherapy, there is wide acceptance of the view that considerable benefits could be obtained with a quality increase of treatment plans by reducing the radiation doses to healthy tissues. One important component for the quality of a treatment plan and tumor response is the accuracy of dose calculations. The clinical advantages of more accurate dose calculations (i.e., how the treatment plans with higher quality dose calculations will impact tumor recurrence, local control, and normal tissue complications) has not been fully quantified and requires further investigation. Nevertheless evidence exists that dose differences on the order of 7% are clinically detectable.
Accordingly, accurate calculations that may predict the dose to be delivered to a patient undergoing radiotherapy are important for the planning and administration of a particular treatment.